Spotlight on the economy: Bernanke unscripted

It’s probably a stretch to say that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will let his hair down on Thursday, but it may as close as a central banker gets.

Bernanke, whose eight-year term at the Fed is set to end on Jan. 31, is sitting down at 11 a.m Eastern to review his record with Liaquat Ahamed, the Pulitzer-Prize winning author of “Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke The World.” The event is sponsored by the Brookings Institution.

It is one of the rare occasions that Bernanke will not be working off prepared remarks.

Earlier at the same panel, San Francisco Fed President John Williams will deliver a paper about monetary policy when short-term interest rates are close to zero.

Before Bernanke speaks, the markets will get the latest reports on jobless claims and consumer inflation. Both reports come out at 8:30 a.m. Eastern.

Jobless claims are forecast to match or remain close to last week’s level of 330,000, indicating little change in the U.S. labor market.

The consumer price index, for its part, is projected to rise 0.3% in December, mainly because of an increase in the energy index. The core index that strips out food and energy is seen rising a mild 0.2%.